


Fake It

by sgteam14283



Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Secret Santa, Spies & Secret Agents, Strike Team Delta, Suburbia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-27
Updated: 2018-01-14
Packaged: 2019-02-22 09:00:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,055
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13163637
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sgteam14283/pseuds/sgteam14283
Summary: Faking a relationship is part of the job for Strike Team Delta. But sometimes the lines can get blurred.





	1. One

**Author's Note:**

  * For [impactvelocity](https://archiveofourown.org/users/impactvelocity/gifts).



> written for be_compromised's Secret Santa Exchange! One of the ideas was fake dating and man, that is one of my favorite things in the whole world. The first one is from the actual exchange while the other two were written at the same time but I didn't have enough time to edit them before the deadline. Enjoy!

Natasha Romanov wasn’t above reading tabloids. Call it a guilty pleasure or morbid curiosity to watch people’s lives crash and burn in the most public way, but whenever there was a particularly long flight in her future she managed to pick up a stack of trashy magazine’s to occupy her time. Even when some of her targets were in the spotlight, she managed to avoid the flashing camera’s or paid off the paparazzi to ‘lose’ the film.

Then the sky above Manhattan exploded and she was thrust into the spotlight of phone camera’s so Natasha was surprised when she walked out a well known New York restaurant and was greeted with flashing lights and shouts of who was she wearing, was she on a date, is she living at Stark Tower now? It was easy enough to lose them, but they kept showing up and it was annoying her.

The only solace was that they were hounding the rest of the Avengers as well and Clint was particularly miserable.

—

Clint Barton didn’t like the spotlight. He knew that it was ironic coming from a former carney, but the fact that he couldn’t get a slice of pizza without people pulling out their phones and snapping pictures of the guy who didn’t miss was annoying. When he complained to Stark, Tony just smiled and said he’d better get used to it; he was the face of SHIELD now even if he didn’t like it.

“ _Face of SHIELD…says the man who blew his own secret identity._ ” Clint thought to himself as he picked up his bow and quiver, wanting to blow off some steam at the range at the Triskelion. Making his way there Clint noticed that he got a lot more glances than normal, telling him that even SHIELD operatives read the tabloids. Clint tried not to let it bother him but at the same time his new found celebrity status was troubling; if he couldn’t step outside without camera’s pointing in his direction, covert ops were out of the question so where did that leave him at SHIELD?

Arriving at the range, Clint saw that Natasha had beaten him and was currently taking her own frustrations out at the paparazzi by destroying as many copies as she could with her handgun. Raising an eyebrow at the shreds of paper on the ground, he waited until Natasha had emptied her clip before saying, “I take it they won’t leave you alone either.”

“I can’t even get a cup of coffee at my bodega anymore.” Natasha sighed while unloading her gun and thumbing the safety on.

“I have to have my pizza _delivered_.” Clint grimaced at saying the words as he checked the tension in the string on his bow. “They’re always bugging me about who I’m dating. Like…who cares?”

“Same here, although I get the ‘who are you wearing’ one as well. And ‘how do you stay so thin,’ you know all the standard questions they ask female celebrities.” Looking at Clint, Natasha could see that he was just as frustrated and suddenly had an idea. Tilting her head slightly, she was silent for a moment before asking, “What do you think about messing with them?”

Clint paused in putting on his arm guards and looked up at Natasha to see that she was giving him a slight smile, a sign that she had something already planned. Narrowing his eyes he asked, “How?”

“We pretend that we’re dating, nothing too serious but just enough to fuck with them enough. And drive Coulson up a wall as well.”

“What about Hill?”

“Maybe her as well.”

Clint smiled at the image of Maria reading about their relationship and getting so red in the face she went down to May’s corner of the world to get the HR paperwork herself. Sticking out his hand he said, “Deal.”

So they started teasing the paparazzi; holding hands when walking on the street heading towards Stark Tower, getting ice cream at a hole-in-the-wall place and tipping off _TMZ_ beforehand. Although the best one was when they were helping one of the neighborhoods that was destroyed during the fight.

“Don’t look up, but some paparazzi are here.” Natasha said as she handed Clint a dustpan so he could help her sweep up debris. Her, Clint, and Steve had decided to help a neighborhood that was still cleaning up after their fight and while at first the residents were a bit wary of the trio, but when they realized the offer to help clean up was genuine they were more than glad to have Captain America, Black Widow, and Hawkeye pick up bricks and shards of glass.

“Yeah? Want to give them something for a bidding war?” Clint asked in a low tone as he took the dustpan with a smile.

Natasha shook her head and took Clint’s empty hand, threading her fingers with his. “Maybe later, but how about laughing like I just said something funny?”

“I’m gonna brush some invisible dirt off you face." Clint said before letting out a laugh like Nat had just said the most adorable thing and reached out to brush some dirt off of her face. “Think that’ll bait them?”

“I think so.” Natasha said while feeling her face heat up. The warning had been nice, but she couldn’t ignore the shiver down her spine as Clint touched her. Clearing her throat she went back to helping people pick up the pieces of the lives but as she did, the memory of Clint’s thumb ghosting over her cheek was in the back of her mind.

—

Clint made a sound of disgust as he gave up trying to tie the bow tie. “Remind me why we’re going to this again?” he asked while turning around to see Natasha finish putting on her earrings. Stark was holding a benefit for rebuilding lower Manhattan and Fury had told both of them that an appearance was mandatory.

“Because this is when we really start fucking with the press.” Natasha replied as she walked towards Clint and quickly tied the bow tie. “And Fury said that we needed to play nice with Tony for the time being.”

“Fine. But I’m stealing a bottle of champagne for later.” Clint shrugged on the tux jacket and made a few adjustments before walking out down the stairs of his walk-up and into the waiting limo with Natasha. Fortunately all of the press seemed to be waiting for them at the event, and when they stepped out onto the literal red carpet Clint blinked against the glare of the flashing lights.

“Agent Barton! Back from your latest mission?”

"Agent Romanov! Is the dress couture?”

“Agent Barton! Are you two dating?”

Clint glanced at Natasha who was smiling for the camera’s and he could tell that she was giving the camera’s a coy smile (the one she wore when grifting a target) before glancing at him. Doing the same himself, he plastered on a smile and gave a wave while saying, “Yes we are.”

Almost instantly the flashes increased as did the shouting; When did they start dating? Where did they go on their first date? Did SHIELD know about the relationship? Did becoming partners lead to them falling in love?

The last question thew Clint and he looked into the throng of reporters, wondering who had shouted the question and why. Sure he cared for Natasha but only in the ‘you’ve saved my ass too many times to count and I’d do the same for you’ way. Looking at Nat in the dark blue dress with the print on the bottom and a light blue belt around her waist, her red hair in slight curls and carefully arraigned, Clint felt something in the back of his mind whisper that she was particularly pretty tonight.

Mentally shaking the thought away, Clint reminded himself that this was a scam to fuck with the press and it meant nothing. Taking a breath, he took Natasha’s hand and shot another smile for the press as they walked up the steps.

—

The next morning Natasha sat down in the cafeteria with her breakfast and instantly had the society page slapped down in front of her; the photo of her and Clint dancing as they smiled at each other staring back at her. Looking up, she saw Maria sliding in the seat across the table from her. “Deputy Director.” Natasha said, knowing what was going to come out of Hill’s mouth before she spoke.

“Barton? _Really?_ ”

Natasha shrugged and took a bite of her breakfast sandwich. “He’s cute in a tux.”

“This is the same man who infamously wrote ‘Arrows. A lot.’ and expected Accounting to take that as a receipt.”

“I think I can straighten him out. Or at least his inventory."

“He fell into a dumpster only to find that Daredevil was in the same dumpster.”

“I have a thing for human disasters.”

Maria pinched the bridge of her nose with her fingers and sighed, “Just…fill out the HR paperwork and have it on my desk before the end of the day.”

“Will do.” Natasha nodded and allowed herself a smile as Hill walked away. Pulling out her phone, she quickly texted Clint.

_Hill just told to me to fill out the paperwork._

_-Nat_

Her phone buzzed a minute later.

_Already? Damn…owe you twenty bucks._

_-Clint_

Natasha stared at the message for a minute before replying.

_Make it dinner at the new Mario Batali place and we’ll call it even._

_-Nat_

_You do know there’s a five month waiting list for that place._

_-Clint_

_You’re a famous secret agent, use your influence to get us a spot. Or ask Pepper to help. And I’ll tip off the paparazzi._

_-Nat_

—

Natasha was sitting in the main room of Stark Tower, amused at the celebrity section of People was sporting pictures of her and Clint when they were at a DC party last week-not working but to make sure Tony didn’t do anything stupid as he lobbied for more money to aid in the rebuilding of some of the lower-income neighborhoods (so slightly working) when Steve waked into the room.

Seeing the photo and splashy headline, Steve raised an eyebrow while asking, “You and Clint are dating?”

Natasha looked up and shrugged, “Does it matter?”

“Not in the field, I know that you both can focus on the mission at hand. But Clint?”

Knowing that Steve was being hounded by the press just as much as they were, maybe even more since he’d been touted as figure of Americana during and after the war. Maybe that’s what made her say, “Actually we’re just doing it to fuck with the press. They won’t leave us alone so we thought why not have some fun with it?”

“That makes a little more sense.” Steve said while smiling and sitting on the arm of the couch. “Also sounds like fun.”

“It is. Although we have to make sure that they know where we are so we can put on the act.” Natasha said as she had an idea. Looking at Steve she asked, “They’re in your face as well right?”

“Yeah. Always asking me how I’m adjusting to this time and if I miss the forties.” Steve sighed, absently rubbing his forehead. “Like I miss getting smallpox and rationing.”

Biting back a smile, Natasha tilted her head as her idea began to fully form. “Wanna have some fun?”

—

Clint phone buzzed and saw that it was a news alert. He’d set it up so whenever one of the celebrity blogs or news sites posting something about their fake relationship he could forward it to Natasha and they’d share a few laughs about it. Deciding that he’d look at it later, Clint set down his phone when it buzzed again.

Then again.

And again.

Curious, Clint picked his phone back up and opened it to see that there were at least ten news alerts. Picking one at random he waited as the web browser opened and the page loaded.

_Love in a New Time for Captain America?_

_Agent Natasha Romanov was spotted this afternoon getting rather cozy with Captain America, Steve Rogers, over at an Italian restaurant in the Bronx. A close source said that her and Agent Clint Barton were ‘taking a break’ to-_

Clint exited out of the site, knowing that the rest would just be made up crap that anyone gullible enough would believe. The rest of the alerts were the same; Natasha and Steve getting ice cream, walking in Central Park, and trying to have a private moment on the street.

“ _All the same stuff that we’ve done._ ” Clint thought as he tried to ignore the jealous feeling that had settled in his chest while spotting a text from Natasha.

_Clint, going to give even more food to the sharks by pretending to go on a date with Steve (which he said would be ‘the best fucking thing he’s done so far’)._

_-Nat_

Seeing that it was all fake again eased the tightness, but it left Clint wondering why the hell he should feel jealous about something that wasn’t even real in the first place.

_Got reservations for the Mario Batali place on Sat. Wear the black dress you wore when we first met._

_-Clint_

—

Dinner at the restaurant was amazing as Natasha had heard it would be. And to keep her end of the bargain she placed an anonymous call to one of the tabloid tip lines so the photographers were jockeying for space as their limo pulled away from the curb and into Saturday night traffic.

“You do realize this is how Princess Diana died right?” Clint asked as he stared at the reporters who were running along the sidewalk, shouting questions and trying to get a candid shot of them to sell for a ridiculous price.

“Keep telling yourself that.” Natasha replied with a smile that made Clint narrow his eyes as he tried to figure out if she was messing with him or not. As Clint sat back in the seat, she noticed how relaxed he’d seemed during dinner (despite the fact that more than a few people tried to not so stealthily take photos of them) and suddenly wondered what it’d be like to go on a real date with him. Surprising herself at the thought, Natasha turned to look at the passing scenery to distract her burning cheeks.

It felt like the limo arrived at her place all to quickly and Natasha found herself not wanting to leave Clint. “ _Why am I nervous? He’s dropped me off from things before._ ” Natasha thought to herself as they got out of the limo together and Clint payed the driver.

Watching him walk up, hands in his pocket and collar undone with his tie loosened, she felt her stomach squeeze with… _something_. Opening her mouth to ask if he’d like to come up to her place when he said, “I think I left some arrows at your place, mind if I grab them?”

Natasha was confused, she hadn’t seen any arrows laying around when she’d last checked but could have glossed over them. “Sure…I mean if you’re fine walking home.”

“I’m a master assassin, why wouldn’t I?” Clint asked as he pulled open the entry door for Natasha and she walked passed him.

“Says the man who ended up in a dumpster with Daredevil.” Natasha pressed the button for the elevator and turned to give Clint a smirk.

“Why does everyone keep bringing that up? I wanted to break my fall, how was I supposed to know that he’d crawled in there to hide from some bad guys?” Clint asked as the elevator arrived and they stepped inside.

“Because only that could happen to you.” Natasha said, following Clint into the elevator. As the door closed she started to turn around to face the door and was surprised when Clint grabbed her wrist and pulled her in for a heated kiss.

“ _Clint._ ” Natasha gasped as he moved away from her mouth and towards her neck.

Clint paused as he took at step back, looking at Natasha. He’d known it was a gamble, kissing her, and he hoped that he wasn’t going to get his ass kicked. Again.

But instead of being angry Natasha looked like she was amused. Cautiously licking his lips, Clint took a breath. “Nat?”

“I’m surprised it took you this long.”

Clint let out a chuckle and ran a hand through his hair. “So you’ve felt it too?”

Natasha leaned against the cool metal of the elevator and let a breath out. “Being…happy?” she asked.

Clint opened his mouth to reply but before he could speak, the doors slid open with a ding and another couple stepped inside. Years of espionage had trained them to adapt to any situation and so Clint hit the button for Natasha’s floor and wordlessly moved closer to her, letting the other couple stand in the front. The ride up was silent, but in the stillness Clint reached for Natasha’s hand and when he found it, gave it a light squeeze and was slightly reassured that she felt the same when she returned it.

The walk to Natasha’s apartment was short, but once they were inside the stillness was almost overwhelming.

“Give me a minute.” Natasha said over her shoulder as she walked towards the bedroom while unclasping the back of her dress.

“Uh…yeah sure.” Clint uselessly stuffed his hands into the pockets, suddenly not sure what to do. He’d been in Nat’s place before, the cozy modern look always making him feel like someone other than Natasha lived here; but then he saw her in the worn yoga pants and faded t-shirt and knew that it was just one of the many sides of his partner.

While he was waiting, Milo sauntered in and Clint gave the cat an absent scratch on the head. Milo let out a faint hiss and Clint resisted the urge to roll his eyes. “Yeah, I know but Lucky’s not going anywhere so you’re gonna have to get used to the dog smell.” he muttered while loosening his tie ever further and somewhere in the back of his mind wondered if it was too late to catch a flight to Iowa and visit his sister Laura and her kids until everything cooled off.

God knows he could use the vacation.

“Sorry about that, needed to get out of those heels. They might look nice but damn, they kill my feet.” Natasha said as she reappeared in her usual lounge wear.

“That’s okay.” Clint all but fell onto the couch, letting out a small sigh as he sank down into it. “Gave me time to think.”

“About what?” Natasha paused when she heard the words, wondering if Clint was suddenly realizing the elevator kiss was a mistake and having second thoughts about this whole thing.

“About us…this whole thing. I mean, I don’t regret what just happened but…” Clint trailed off, suddenly not sure how to verbalize it all.

“But what?”

“It makes things confusing. I know that you make me feel less like a dumpster fire but where’s that line, y’know?

Natasha sat next to Clint as he was talking and laced her fingers through his, realizing that she had the same concerns about this whole thing. “What’s real and what’s playing to the camera’s?”

“Exactly.”

“So what do we do? Have some spectacular break up play out in the press like Brad and Jennifer? Or do we just…be ourselves for once?”

Clint gave Natasha a shocked look that made her laugh slightly. “Give up our fifteen minutes of fame? However will we be able to go out without the press hounding us?”

“I think we’ll manage it. Although Fury might not reinstate Strike Team Delta. Or at least not put us on anything that requires us to interact with the public.”

“Well as long as he doesn’t put us with Stark I might come around to the idea of being an instructor.” Clint said as Natasha leaned her head against his shoulder and shifted to put an arm around her shoulders. “But I think that it just being us is a good idea. What do you think?”

“I think it’s a good idea.” she said softly, moving to give Clint a soft on the lips.


	2. Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Natasha _really_ doesn't want to talk about her date...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was a tumblr prompt where person A starts lying about their date and Person B goes along with it. Enjoy!

Natasha Romanov had been on so many dates that ended up going nowhere it was starting to get ridiculous. And it was plenty awkward when your date ended up being an analyst that you liked but not in that way, and didn’t want to piss off because your job depended on their ability to see through all the white noise. 

" _That is the last time I try inter-office dating._ " Natasha thought to herself as she sat down in the cafeteria at the Triskelion. Pouring sugar into her coffee and giving it a stir wondered if she dared hope for a last minute mission to god-knows-where so she didn’t have to turn down a second date when Maria slid into the seat across from her. 

“How did it go?” Maria asked in a casual tone but making it clear she was fishing for details.

Natasha really didn’t want to answer that question for a lot of reasons. Least of all because for some reason the Deputy Director was interested in your romantic life. Focusing on pouring the creamer in her coffee like she was about to assassinate it, Natasha shrugged. “It was alright.” 

“C’mon, who did you go out with? Where did you go?” Maria prodded, giving Natasha the look she normally reserved for Clint Barton when he was being extra difficult. “I need details.” 

Normally composed, Natasha was starting to panic a little because she really didn’t want to talk about the date last night (the date itself went perfectly fine, she just didn’t think they were compatible). “Well…” she trailed off, eyes darting around the room for a suitable patsy; a name that Maria would think would be reasonable but nothing too out there when Clint walked in still looking sweaty from his morning workout. “I went out with Clint.” Natasha blurted out before she could think twice about it.

Maria raised an eyebrow at the statement and looked at the archer who was currently headed towards them. “Barton?” she asked, the skepticism clear in her voice. 

“Yes.” Natasha nodded her head, hoping that it wasn’t too much and wondering if she’d made the right call. “We…we went to this Middle Eastern place and then we walked along the national mall. Kinda cheesy but it was nice.” 

Maria narrowed her eyes like she didn’t quite believe Natasha and the other woman hoped that she wouldn’t get busted in the lie; Hill was notorious for ferreting out half-truths (the recruits were still told about the time she caught Fury in a lie). “I’ll be right back.” she said abruptly standing and heading towards Clint.

Tamping down a groan, Natasha knew she was going to be found out and was starting to form an extraction plan when Maria reappeared with Clint (who was holding a tray loaded with so much unhealthy food it was baffling) and pointed for him to sit next to Natasha. “Now, let’s start from the beginning.” She said with a smile, like it was a friendly chat instead of the interrogation it was beginning to feel like. “Where did you go to eat?”

“This Middle Eastern place on Tenth Street. I’ve been telling Natasha about it since we were in Quebec and figured it’d be the best place to go on a weeknight. I was right of course.”

Clint paused as he shoved half a donut into his mouth and Natasha gripped her coffee cup, wondering why her partner was going along with this ridiculous lie-even getting the place right when she hadn’t seen him since yesterday. Then she realized that he was continuing and forced herself to pay attention.

“-went for a walk along the National Mall. Kinda hokey but it was a nice night out and since we’re super spies we could handle a few muggers if they tried anything.” Clint was saying while pouring an ungodly amount of sugar into his coffee and Natasha made a mental note to break into his apartment and take out all of the unhealthy food in his cupboards; how he hadn’t had a heart attack yet was both mystifying and astounding.

Natasha looked at Maria who had her normal neutral look throughout the entire conversation and wondered if they were actually pulling this off. But then Maria asked, “When did you start dating?”

“Budapest.”

“Sweden.” 

“ _Crap._ ” Natasha thought after they spoke at the same time while covering her panic with a laugh. 

“We’re still arguing about this Nat?” Clint asked after swallowing the rest of his coffee and picking up the second half of his donut. “I though we’d agreed that it was after the Sweden mission.”

“No, it was after Budapest.” Natasha countered while throwing Clint an exasperated look. “Even if we remember the city differently, I’d expect you to remember _that_.”

“Why?”

“Because you’re an idiot and I would think you'd remember our anniversary.”

“But we have so many already.” Clint raised a hand to tick them off his fingers. “The one when we first met, when I recruited you, when you officially joined SHIELD, when we became Strike Team-”

“Okay!” Maria interjected, causing more than a few others around the room to look towards them. “You’ve convinced me. Just…make sure it doesn’t interfere with your work.”

“Got it boss.” Clint smiled as Hill stood and left before attacking his plate of eggs. 

“Why?” Natasha asked once Maria was out of earshot.

“Why what?”

“Why…go along with me saying we went out last night and are dating and how can you eat all that junk?”

Clint paused long enough to look at Natasha and see her confused expression. “To answer your questions in order; you’ve seemed pretty miserable these last few weeks so it wasn’t hard to guess why since dating sucks in general-particularly in our line of work. I mean who else can you see on a regular basis where you don't have to come up with a lame cover story and watch what you say? And as to the second question, carney body; I grew up eating all this stuff you call ‘junk’ so my body’s used to processing it. And I work out twice a day so there’s that as well.” Clint took a swig of orange juice before continuing, “Besides. Now you owe me.”

“ _And there it is._ ” Natasha thought with a mental sigh and slumped slightly in her chair. “What do you want?”

“For you to actually go on a date with me to that Middle Eastern place off of Tenth.”

“How did you know what I said about our fake date?” 

“It was easy.” Clint said as he stood, tray in hand. “I really have been talking about that place since Quebec and the mall thing was a good guess-you seem like you'd like that kind of thing.”

Natasha was silent as Clint turned to leave and found that she wasn’t dreading the thought of a date with Clint Barton. “ _Although it’ll be an interesting date, two master assassin’s going out to the DC night._ ” she thought while finishing her own coffee and getting up to head towards the mission briefing they had this morning. “ _And Clint can’t go two feet without getting into some kind of trouble so at least I’ll be there to pull him out of it._ ”


	3. Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clint's not a fan of the suburbs but Natasha's presence eases the dullness.

Clint looked at the dossier in front of him and raised an eyebrow. “Seriously?” he asked while raising an eyebrow. 

“Seriously. Coulson wants us airborne in an hour.” Natasha said as she set down her own dossier and flashed Clint her trademark smile. “It’ll be fun.”

“This is the suburbs we’re talking about, it won’t.” Clint protested as he got up to follow Natasha out of the briefing room and down the hall. “The most exciting thing that happens in the suburbs is when Jan from next door forgets about the playdate and Marsha leaves a passive-aggressive post on Facebook about it.”

“Well apparently not in this neighborhood. Something’s off enough to get SHIELD’s attention and Fury wants us to check it out.” 

“Okay…but why? We’re the least suburban looking out of anyone with enough clearance. Why not Coulson and May? They have the whole ‘power couple’ vibe to mesh with the rest of the block. Even if May doesn’t do field work anymore she could handle this. Plus they’ve lived outside of a city so they won’t y’know…have culture shock.” Clint rattled on as they rode down in the elevator towards the locker room where they’d change out of their SHIELD uniforms and into their street clothes.

Natasha let a slight sigh escape as she tried to block out Clint’s bitching, she wasn’t thrilled at being sent to the suburbs of all places-but at least she’d do it with minimal complaint. “Clint.” she said, breaking into his list of everyone else who’d be better for this mission. “The minute I understand Fury’s thought process I’ll be sure to let you know. But until then we need to follow the mission; figure out what’s going on and report back to Coulson.”

Turning to face her partner she smiled, “Besides, think of all the _malls_ we can go to.”

Clint stared at Natasha, she toed company line- especially when it came to Strike Team missions and stopping Clint from doing something particularly stupid, but the way she said ‘mall’ implied that she was going to spend as much time as she could torturing him with the shopping centers. “Just tell me there’s an outdoor grill at the house.”

“I’m sure there’s one Clint. Now go get changed.” Natasha threw over her shoulder as she went into the locker room.

—

The house SHIELD provided them was big for just two people; a two story colonial with an enclosed porch and a double car garage. Clint and Natasha timed their arrival so they would get there when some of the neighborhood was gone for the weekend, but also making sure they’d be spotted unpacking the car.

“Oh great, just what we need…more space.” Clint said as they pulled into the drive in the sedan that the agency had provided and popped the trunk. 

They hadn’t been given a timeline on the assignment so both of them had planned on being there for at least a few months-knowing that it might take time for something to happen.

“Toss me the keys, I’m going to scope out the place.” Natasha said as she turned around. Catching them from Clint, Natasha quickly opened the house and stepped inside. The front room felt bigger than her DC apartment and since there was hardly any furniture her footsteps echoed off of the walls. Placing a reassuring hand on the gun against her back, Natasha poked her head into the kitchen and once she saw it was clear fully walked in. 

The kitchen was modern but had a homey quality to it, the light wooden cupboards contrasting with the off-white paint and stainless steel appliances. “ _We should run to the store and pick up some basics. Give us a chance to actually cook for a change._ ” Natasha thought as she skimmed her fingers across the formica island. While on the run from the Red Room, she’d taken a job in a restaurant and had been mesmerized at the precision of a well run kitchen, everyone running about in controlled chaos while creating wonderful things.

“Nat?” 

Clint’s voice broke her out of her thoughts and Natasha replied, “In the kitchen.”

“You check the rest of the house?” 

“About to. Looking from the outside, the southwest window might be your best bet to set up the nest.”

Clint ignored the jab and nodded his head idly, thinking about something. “I’ll check it out. Maybe haul up my arrows tonight. What about the backyard?”

Natasha looked out the double doors that led to the deck and to the modestly sized yard beyond that. It was surrounded by a wooden fence to say to the neighbors on either side that the patch of grass was theirs and could easily be climbed over by anyone who had decent training or the will to get over. Other than that, it was like every other suburban yard. “Not worried about it, although we could set up some camera’s if you want.” 

Clint scratched the back of his head, still thinking, “Yeah that sounds like a good idea. That and it’ll help with our cover story that we moved from the city.”

“We did move from the city, Barton.”

“I know, that’s why it makes camera’s on the back of the house believable.” Clint replied as he started to walk out of the kitchen. “We still need to unpack the rest of the stuff.” 

“And get furniture for the front room. Maybe call Coulson and see when it's arriving.” Clint heard Natasha call out as he opened the door and saw that one of their neighbors had decided to get the welcome wagon rolling and stop by to be nosy about their new neighbors. Before they could introduce themselves though, Clint called over his shoulder, “Hun we’ve got company.”

Natasha raised an eyebrow at the nickname but realized that they were in mission mode a bit sooner than they’d thought. Rounding the corner into the hallway, she saw Clint step back so the neighbor could come into the house. Plastering on a smile, she slipped into her cover. “Hi there! I’m Natalie and this is my…partner Clint.”

“Sylvie. I live across the street. I saw the car pull up and wanted to introduce myself. Where’d you come from?”

“DC.” Clint and Natasha said at the same time, causing Sylvie to smile a bit wider. They played their parts like the spies they were; solidifying their backstory and getting information out of the neighbor without her knowing it.

Clint closed the door and let out a breath, that had been a conversation. Sylvie had just left after giving them the neighborhood gossip; a house that had been on the market for over two years, loud noises during the middle of the night, and an uptick in crime. Clint looked at all the pieces and wanted to say ‘drug manufacturing and/or smuggling’ but it almost always was never the most obvious answer.

“What do you think?” Natasha asked as she watched Sylvie cross the street and walk towards her house. “We should keep an eye on the house that’s for sale-they could be using it as a staging ground.”

“Yeah. It could be just the usual suburban crime ring or something like _Breaking Bad_.” Clint replied as he ran a hand through his hair. “We can call Coulson tomorrow and figure out our next step from there.” 

The rest of the day passed in a blur; unpacking their stuff, setting up the surveillance equipment in the unused room, and then a quick run to the local grocery store for dinner and a few other things. Clint took the first watch as people started returning from their weekend plans. As the evening stretched on the street became silent and as it reached two in the morning, Clint saw that nothing was happening and decided not to wake Natasha for the second watch. 

“ _It’s been a long day and we both could use the rest._ ” he thought while stifling a yawn and quietly padding to their room. 

Clint had made the argument that he could take the couch while Nat took the bed but Natasha just counted that they didn’t even have a couch yet, so why suffer on the hard floor when there was a nice soft bed. They had shared a bed before, but one or both of them had been injured at the time so this would be very different. Quickly changing into his _Dog Cops_ shirt and boxers, he climbed into bed quietly and was soon fast asleep.

—  
Natasha woke up squinting to the sunlight streaming into the large window and ran a hand through her hair as she sat up. Glancing at the clock she saw it was just past six in the morning and glanced at the other side of the bed to see that the pillows were gone. Getting out, she saw feet on the floor towards the window and walking towards them saw Clint asleep on the floor. 

“Clint?” Natasha asked while nudging a foot with one of her own.

“Hmpf?” came the muffled reply as Clint buried his face deeper into the pillow. 

“Why are you on the floor?”

Clint let out a muffled sigh and turned onto his back, sitting up as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes. “Because I woke up in the middle of the night without any blankets and your foot digging into my spine. And rather than risk my life by taking some of the blankets back I decided the floor was a better option.”

Natasha raised an eyebrow at the comment, wondering if that had really happened or if Clint was just being Clint and exaggerating. “Uh…sorry? I’ll make pancakes as an apology after our workouts.”

“They are good.” Clint blissfully smiled as he thought about Natasha’s pancakes. Throwing the pillows back onto the bed, Clint went through his morning workout in near record time and as he was walking out of the shower could smell the cooking pancakes wafting up from downstairs.

“You wanna call Coulson after breakfast?” Clint called out as he made his way down the stairs.

“Sure. There’s an email from him saying that he’s sending over a truck with some furniture in it. His words were ‘in case we want to do any entertaining.’ And he’ll email us the dossiers of everyone living in the area.” Natasha said from her position in front of the hot stove. 

“He thinks of everything. Although I don’t think we’ll be here long enough to have people over.” Clint said, walking into the kitchen and trying to steal a pancake from the stack. 

“Hey. You can wait. And we’ve already made plans wth Slyvie and her husband remember?” Natasha playfully hit Clint’s hand with the spatula and laughed as he snatched it back. This was the most normal she’d felt in a long time and it felt…good.

Over the next few days they fell into a routine; early morning workouts followed by eliminating suspects (they managed to uncover three infidelities, two scams, and Todd from down the road was embezzling company funds but nothing to explain the oddities in the neighborhood), then in the evenings they pretended to be a normal couple and invite a family over for dinner so they could conduct surveillance on their neighbors under the guise of getting to know them or just relax on the couch watching _Master Chef_ , _Iron Chef_ , or any number of cooking competition shows that are on cable.

Two weeks into the mission Clint was surprised to realize that he found all this normalcy was…nice. It wasn’t his cup of tea by a long shot but it was nice to take a step back from the world of espionage and just be normal for once. “ _And spending it with Nat is even better._ ” he thought as he watched Natasha finish loading the dishwater, her hair tied back.

Natasha looked up to see Clint staring at her and let a smile ghost across her face. If they weren’t on assignment and…well Clint Barton and Natasha Romanov, it would have been a nice picture; the two of them in a two story house out of the city with hardly any worries. This wasn’t the first assignment where they pretended to be a couple, far from it, but at the same time it felt different. At that realization Natasha frowned, because it could be a number of things making her feel this way: the fact that they were out here by themselves, the serenity of the suburbs compared to DC and SHIELD, or anything else that she couldn’t think of right now.

Taking a breath, Natasha realized she needed space to clear her head and think. “I’ll take first watch.” she said while straightening and all but making a beeline for the stairs. 

“…Alright.” Clint watched Natasha run out of the room and was confused, things had been good up till now and he wasn’t sure what had suddenly changed. Running a hand through his hair, Clint headed to the master bedroom and fell asleep almost instantly.

What felt like a few minutes later, Clint felt a hand shake his shoulder. “What?” he whispered, awake instantly.

“We’ve got movement at the house.” Natasha replied before moving out of the room, knowing that Clint was right behind her. Making her way towards the room where they set up the lookout point, she handed Clint the binoculars while continuing, “The truck pulled up a few minutes ago and they’ve been loading it.” 

“You get a look to see what they’re taking out of the house?” Clint asked as he watched men in black clothing enter and exit the house in regular intervals. He silently exchanged the binoculars for the camera and snapped a few pictures, knowing they could send the photos to Coulson and he'd pass them on.

“No, but-there!” Natasha hissed as the men already outside parted to let a large container through the doorway. 

Clint watched as the container was carefully wheeled down the driveway and into the truck, catching a symbol he hadn’t seen in a long time. “I’m going to tag the truck.” He said over his shoulder while walking quickly to pick up a tracker.

“Why?” Natasha said while following Clint down the stairs, towards the patio door that led into the backyard.

“Because we need to see where they’re taking this stuff.” Clint said, pulling out a tracker and quickly setting it up; programming it to send a signal both to them and the Triskelion, just in case. Glad that he was wearing darker colors this time around, Clint went out into the backyard and looped around to the front. Sliding up to the side of the house he waited until everyone was inside for the last of the boxes, then sprinted across the street and up the drive. Quickly getting to his knees, Clint placed the tracker on the underside of the truck and scrambled back up, heading towards the side of the house-getting out of sight just as the men came out of the house. 

Not pausing, Clint quietly made his way towards the backyard and into the opposite neighbors yard. Ducking low, he waited until the sounds of the truck starting up and pulling down the street were gone. Breathing a sigh of relief, Clint hopped over the fence and ran back to Natasha. “You got the signal?” he asked after closing the front door and making his way into the kitchen. 

“Yeah. Here.” Natasha said as she tossed Clint his SHIELD outfit, having slipped into hers while he was gone. “I’ll get the car, you grab the gear.”

“Gottcha.” Clint said as he ducked into the hall bathroom to quickly slip into the familiar black and purple outfit. Once he was ready it was a quick stop to the hall closet to pull out their gear before hoping into the car as Natasha pulled out of the garage and into the street. Taking the tracker from her, Clint saw that the truck was heading towards the highway. 

It wasn’t hard for them to catch up to the truck and blend in with the start of the morning rush. Keeping their distance, Natasha pulled to a stop short of where the truck lumbered through a gate and into a giant warehouse. “Ready?” Natasha asked as she doubled checked her gear and slid her sidearm into the holster at her side.

“Of course.” Clint grinned, glad that it wasn’t turning out to be a boring job after all. 

“What was in the container that made you tag the truck?” 

“I don’t know for sure, but you know how we’ve had AIM on our watchlist for awhile?” 

“Yeah.”

“It was their logo on the container so it couldn’t have been anything good.” 

“Lets hope you’re right.” Natasha said as they jogged towards the fence. Normally they wouldn’t have gone for the direct approach, but they were working with very little intel and knew that they most likely had a tight time frame. “Smash and run?”

“Sounds good.” Clint pulled an arrow from his quiver and aimed for the nearest flood light, blacking it out.

Clint then aimed for the second light on the other side and took it out as well, as well as the next set of lights. They didn’t have much time to prepare a plan so falling back on a classic was solid. Natasha then pulled out the thermal cutters and sliced a hole big enough for them to slip through. Once they were through, they hid behind a shipping container to make sure no one was coming to check out the disruption. 

There was silence and Natasha signaled that they could move, each taking a separate route but running parallel of each other. AIM must not of been expecting trouble because other than a guard at the font gate, there was hardly any security outside the warehouse. Clint pulled out a grappling hook arrow and shot it towards the roof. After giving it an experimental tug to see if it would hold, he started to climb. Making their way to the large skylight in the middle, they peered down to see what was going on. 

The warehouse was full of AIM employees unloading the truck that they’d tailed and from the looks of it, seemed to be a distribution center.

“I’ll call Coulson.” Clint whispered, pulling back from the window to place the call.

Natasha continued to look through the window and spotted the manager’s office. If anything it could tell them what was going on it’d be in there. Quietly opening the hatch, Natasha slipped through and onto the rafters. Stealthily making her way across the steel beams, she waited until the people in there had left and landed on the roof with as little noise as possible. Sliding onto the catwalk, Natasha tested the door knob and found it unlocked. Slightly surprised, she stole inside and went right to the nearest computer. 

It hadn’t gone to sleep yet so Natasha knew she had a tight time frame. Quickly clicking around she found the files and started to copy them to a dummy cloud account that SHIELD had for instances like this. 

“Hey!”

“ _Time’s up._ ” Natasha thought to herself as she finished the keystroke that deleted the cloud account on the computer and turned to see a worker staring right at her. She rushed towards the man before he could raise the alarm and wrapped her arm around his neck, dragging him down into a sleeper hold out of the view of the window and squeezing until he fell unconscious. Letting go, she took a second to brush the hair out of her face when suddenly an alarm blared and Natasha looked to see men falling to the ground with arrows in them.

Natasha yanked open the door and joined the chaos, taking them out with her sidearm or with her widow’s bite if they got too close. Dodging a punch from one, she threw one of her own and turned to see a much larger man swinging a pipe towards her head. But an arrow landed in his shoulder and electrocuted him before she could react. “I had him.” she shot as Clint appeared at her side.

“Sure you did. How many left?” Clint asked as he pulled out the arrow from the convulsing man and slid it back into his quiver.

“Not sure.” Natasha said quickly scanning the room. “When did Coulson say a team could get here?” 

“Should be any time now.” Clint said as he used his bow to sweep another worker off his feet and threw a solid punch to incapacitate him. Just as he straightened from landing the blow, the doors to the warehouse were blown open and in stormed a SHIELD recovery team. They made quick work of subduing the rest of the workers then began a sweep the building for any traps that AIM might have set in-case something like this happened.

“Agent’s Barton and Romanov!” the leader called out as he made his way towards them.

“Rumlow!” Clint called out, raising a hand and waving it to give their position across the building.

“Assistant Director Coulson wants to see you at the house, said he’ll brief you once you’re there. We’ll start cataloguing this place while you go back.” Rumlow said as he unsnapped the straps on his helmet but still kept it on.

Clint nodded his understanding and as they walked back to the car asked, “Why did you go in without me?”

“Because I saw an opportunity and decided to take it, if we’d waited they could’ve taken the stuff who knows where and we would’ve been back to square two. You would’ve done the same thing.” 

“I must be rubbing off on you.” Clint teased as Natasha shot him a look that said that was unlikely while tossing him the keys.

—

Rounding the corner Clint saw the cars lining the street and slowed while pulling out his SHIELD ID, knowing they’d have local police stop any traffic until the agency had finished at the house. After getting through, they pulled up to the curb and saw Coulson directing the agents outside of the house. Walking up to their handler they went by the cluster of neighbors who had come out of their homes to see what was going on and knew that their cover as a regular couple from the suburbs was over.

“Barton. Romanov.” Coulson nodded once they were nearer. “Good work on figuring out what was going on.” 

“What was going on? We never got a look inside the containers.” Clint said as he nodded towards the blue containers with the yellow AIM logo stamped on it.

“What we can tell is that they were using this place through a series of shell corporation’s to store items which were then transferred to the warehouse.” Coulson said as he looked up from the tablet he’d been scrolling through.

“Tax evasion!?” Clint hissed, not wanting the neighbors to overhear. “We were sent here because of fucking _tax evasion_?” He wanted to punch something and not in a fun way.

“Possibly. Although we need to open the containers to be certain. Good work here though, you managed not to cause any incidents this time.” 

Natasha was trying hard not to laugh at Clint’s utter look of defeat as Coulson walked away to deal with an issue and guided him to the curb where they sat down. “It’s okay.” 

“No it’s not!” Clint exploded, putting his head in his hands. “Give me AIM making a super soldier serum in the basement or even…I don’t know, _something_ other than a corporation trying to dodge the IRS.” 

Natasha let a small laugh escape through her lips and leaned her head against Clint’s shoulder. “Well at least we get to go back to the city and our apartments now.”

“Yeah. There is that.” Clint said idly as he watched the SHIELD agents bustle back and forth. Eventually they finished up at the house and sealed it up, leaving Clint and Natasha to pack up their own belongings and drive back to DC the next day. 

Once they were back in DC it was a flurry of debriefs and finally at the end of the fourth day of meetings Clint sought Natasha out. They needed to talk because since coming back to the city, he couldn’t get her out of his head and wanted to see if she was feeling the same way. “ _This is going beyond just being partners._ ” Clint told himself as he spotted Natasha stepping out of the locker room. “Nat, can we talk?” 

“Yeah…sure.” Natasha said slowly, wondering what it was about. Since getting back to the Triskelion she’d thought about Clint a little more than usual and knew that their relationship had shifted again.

Clint ran a hand through his hair and sighed, “Let’s go…somewhere else.”

He guided her to an empty workout room and locked the door, ensuring that they wouldn’t be disturbed. “We’re friends right?”

“Right.” Natasha said slowly. They had a complicated history, with more fights and grifts than anything else, but in the end they had learned to trust each other and had developed an friendship that enhanced their working relationship.

“And that I’d take a bullet for you, I have actually-more than once.” 

“And so have I.” 

“We’ve done a lot of dumb shit together too.”

“You have.” 

Clint smiled while laughing slightly. “Yeah…and I don’t want any of that to change. But…”

“But?”

Clint sighed, coming to the harder part of the conversation. “Living together for three weeks it all seems…different like, I dunno just different.”

“Like we can’t get each other out of our heads?”

“Yeah. Like that.” Clint took a breath and barreled ahead. “Well I was thinking…maybe we give this co-habatation thing a try.”

“Really?”

“I mean we basically arrive at work at the same time and you’re practically at my place most of the time anyways so why not have two crockpots instead of just one?”

Natasha folded her arms and raised an eyebrow at the statement. “Do you even own a crockpot?”

“No, but you might because your life is a little more together and…” Clint trailed off with a sigh. “What do you say?”

Natasha was silent for a minute before replying, “Maybe.”

“Maybe?”

“Maybe. I need to think about it.”

“A ‘maybe’ is better than a ‘no.’” Clint thought while smiling. “I can live with that.”


End file.
